112-648: The Umatilla Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. It was created by The Treaty of 9 June 1855 between the United States and members of the Walla, Cayuse, and Umatilla tribes. It lies in northeastern Oregon , east of Pendleton. The reservation is mostly in Umatilla County , with a very small part extending south into Union County . It
224-1011: A conviction that carries an appropriate potential sentence when a serious crime has been committed. Our role as the primary prosecutor of serious crimes makes our responsibility to citizens in Indian Country unique and mandatory. Accordingly, public safety in tribal communities is a top priority for the Department of Justice. Emphasis was placed on improving prosecution of crimes involving domestic violence and sexual assault. Passed in 1953, Public Law 280 (PL 280) gave jurisdiction over criminal offenses involving Indians in Indian Country to certain States and allowed other States to assume jurisdiction. Subsequent legislation allowed States to retrocede jurisdiction, which has occurred in some areas. Some PL 280 reservations have experienced jurisdictional confusion, tribal discontent, and litigation, compounded by
336-424: A defining characteristic of Native Americans as a social unit, became apparent to the non-native communities of the United States. The tribe was viewed as a highly cohesive group, led by a hereditary, chosen chief, who exercised power and influence among the members of the tribe by aging traditions. By the end of the 1880s, some U.S. stakeholders felt that the assimilation of Native Americans into American culture
448-622: A few basic land reforms and probate measures. Although Congress enabled major reforms in the structure of tribes through the IRA and stopped the allotment process, it did not meaningfully address fractionation as had been envisioned by John Collier , then Commissioner of Indian Affairs, or the Brookings Institution. "In 1922, the General Accounting Office (GAO) conducted an audit of 12 reservations to determine
560-709: A forced mass migration that came to be known as the Trail of Tears . Some of the lands these tribes were given to inhabit following the removals eventually became Indian reservations. In 1851, the United States Congress passed the Indian Appropriations Act which authorized the creation of Indian reservations in Indian Territory (which became Oklahoma). Relations between white settlers and Natives had grown increasingly worse as
672-407: A government-imposed system of private property by forcing Native Americans to "assume a capitalist and proprietary relationship with property" that did not previously exist in their cultures. Before private property could be dispensed, the government had to determine which Indians were eligible for allotments, which propelled an official search for a federal definition of "Indian-ness". Although
784-483: A governmental structure as part of their confederation. The reservation has a land area of 271.047 square miles (702.01 km) and a tribal population of 2,927 as of the 2000 census . In addition, some 300 Native Americans from other regional tribes and 1,500 non-natives live on the reservation. The largest community is Mission , which is the site of the tribal headquarters as well as the Umatilla Agency of
896-402: A home and a place in the tribe. The act "was the culmination of American attempts to destroy tribes and their governments and to open Indian lands to settlement by non-Indians and to development by railroads." Land owned by Native Americans decreased from 138 million acres (560,000 km ) in 1887 to 48 million acres (190,000 km ) in 1934. Senator Henry M. Teller of Colorado
1008-461: A patent in fee simple, and thereafter all restrictions as to sale, encumbrance, or taxation of said land shall be removed. The use of competence opens up the categorization, making it much more subjective and thus increasing the exclusionary power of the Secretary of Interior. Although this act gave power to the allottee to decide whether to keep or sell the land, given the harsh economic reality of
1120-733: A series of disputes over sovereignty. Dawes Act The Dawes Act of 1887 (also known as the General Allotment Act or the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 ) regulated land rights on tribal territories within the United States. Named after Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts , it authorized the President of the United States to subdivide Native American tribal communal landholdings into allotments for Native American heads of families and individuals. This would convert traditional systems of land tenure into
1232-538: A situation the magnitude of which makes management of trust assets extremely difficult and costly." "These four million interests could expand to eleven million interests by the year 2030 unless an aggressive approach to fractionation is taken." "There are now single pieces of property with ownership interests that are less than 0.0000001% or 1/9 millionth of the whole interest, which has an estimated value of 0.004 cent." The economic consequences of fractionation are severe. Some recent appraisal studies suggest that when
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#17327731527421344-575: A statutory period of 25 years, was eventually sold to non-Native buyers at bargain prices. Additionally, land deemed to be surplus beyond what was needed for allotment was opened to White settlers, though the profits from the sales of these lands were often invested in programs meant to aid the Native Americans. Over the 47 years of the Act's life, Native Americans lost about 90 million acres (360,000 km ) of treaty land, or about two-thirds of
1456-508: A successful democratic experiment that they decided to further explore the use of blood-quantum laws and the notion of federal recognition as the qualifying means for "dispensing other resources and services such as health care and educational funding" to Native Americans long after its passage. Under Dawes, land parcels were dispersed in accordance with perceived blood quanta. Indigenous people labeled "full-blooded" were allocated "relatively small parcels of land deeded with trust patents over which
1568-521: A total of over 155 million acres (630,000 km ) of land, ranging from arid deserts to prime agricultural land. The Reservation system , while compulsory for Native Americans, allotted each tribe a claim to their new lands, protection over their territories, and the right to govern themselves. With the U.S. Senate to be involved only for negotiation and ratification of treaties, the Native Americans adjusted their ways of life and tried to maintain their traditions. The traditional tribal organization,
1680-620: Is a conflict between the Menomee Nation and the State of Wisconsin and "the 1831 Menomee Treaty … ran the boundary between the lands of the Oneida, known in the Treaty as the "New York Indians". This Treaty from 1831 is the cause of conflicts and is disputed because the land was good hunting grounds. The Trade and Intercourse Act of 1834 says "In the 1834 Indian Trade and Intercourse Act,
1792-665: Is a gas station and general store at Fort Hall Indian Reservation, Idaho , and a museum at Foxwoods, on the Mashantucket Pequot Indian Reservation in Connecticut ). Tribal citizens may utilize several resources held in tribal tenures such as grazing range and some cultivable lands. They may also construct homes on tribally held lands. As such, members are tenants-in-common , which may be likened to communal tenure. Even if some of this pattern emanates from pre-reservation tribal customs, generally
1904-519: Is located near Interstate 84 . In 2006 it started Cayuse Technologies, to provide software development and related services. These enterprises employ 1,000 persons and have markedly reduced unemployment. Pendleton photographer Walter S. Bowman photographed tribe members in the early 20th century. The CTUIR founded the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute , a museum that provides both historical and contemporary exhibits related to
2016-733: Is managed by the three Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation . Located on the north side of the Blue Mountains , the reservation was established for two Sahaptin -speaking Native American tribes: the Umatilla and Walla Walla , and for the Cayuse , whose language, now extinct, was an isolate. All the tribes historically inhabited the Columbia Plateau region. The tribes share land and
2128-585: Is returned to productive use within the local community." Fractionation is not a new issue. In the 1920s, the Brookings Institution conducted a major study of the conditions of the Native Americans and included data on the impacts of fractionation. This report, which became known as the Meriam Report , was issued in 1928. Its conclusions and recommendations formed the basis for land reform provisions that were included in what would become
2240-635: Is signed by Isaac Shelby and Jackson. It discusses several regulations regarding the Native Americans and the approval of Indigenous segregation and the reservation system. President Martin Van Buren negotiated a treaty with the Saginaw Chippewas in 1837 to build a lighthouse. The President of the United States of America was directly involved in the creation of new treaties regarding Indian Reservations before 1850. Van Buren stated that indigenous reservations are "all their reserves of land in
2352-533: Is valued at $ 8,000. It has 439 owners, one-third of whom receive less than $ .05 in annual rent and two-thirds of whom receive less than $ 1. The largest interest holder receives $ 82.85 annually. The common denominator used to compute fractional interests in the property is 3,394,923,840,000. The smallest heir receives $ .01 every 177 years. If the tract were sold (assuming the 439 owners could agree) for its estimated $ 8,000 value, he would be entitled to $ .000418. The administrative costs of handling this tract are estimated by
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#17327731527422464-737: The Bureau of Indian Affairs . Some BIA agency offices serve more than one federally recognized tribe , but the Umatilla Agency exclusively serves the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR). The CTUIR is one of several tribal governments in the northwestern United States to offer free bus service on its reservation. The tribes developed the Wildhorse Casino Resort on their reservation to generate revenues for their people. The casino
2576-524: The Dawes Act facilitated sales to non–Native Americans, resulting in some reservations becoming severely fragmented, with pieces of tribal and privately held land being treated as separate enclaves. This intersection of private and public real estate creates significant administrative, political, and legal difficulties. The total area of all reservations is 56,200,000 acres (22,700,000 ha; 87,800 sq mi; 227,000 km ), approximately 2.3% of
2688-591: The European colonization of the Americas , Europeans often removed Indigenous peoples from their homelands. The means varied, including treaties made under considerable duress, forceful ejection, violence, and in a few cases voluntary moves based on mutual agreement. The removal caused many problems such as tribes losing the means of livelihood by being restricted to a defined area, poor quality of land for agriculture, and hostility between tribes. The first reservation
2800-733: The Meriam Report after the study's director, Lewis Meriam – documented fraud and misappropriation by government agents. In particular, the Meriam Report claimed that the General Allotment Act had been used to illegally deprive Native Americans of their land rights. After considerable debate, Congress terminated the allotment process under the Dawes Act by enacting the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 ("Wheeler-Howard Act"). However,
2912-570: The Mississippi River and occupying lands that were first reserved by treaty ( Indian Land Grants ) from the public domain. Because recognized Native American nations possess tribal sovereignty , albeit of a limited degree, laws within tribal lands may vary from those of the surrounding and adjacent states. For example, these laws can permit casinos on reservations located within states which do not allow gambling, thus attracting tourism. The tribal council generally has jurisdiction over
3024-535: The Oneida People in 1838. This treaty allows the indigenous peoples five years on a specific reserve "the west shores of Saganaw bay". The creation of reservations for indigenous people of America could be as little as a five-year approval before 1850. Article two of the treaty claims "the reserves on the river Angrais and at Rifle river, of which said Indians are to have the usufruct and occupancy for five years." Indigenous people had restraints pushed on them by
3136-635: The Umatilla Indian Reservation , after the individual parcels were granted out of reservation land, the reservation area was reduced by giving the "excess land" to white settlers. The individual allotment policy continued until 1934 when it was terminated by the Indian Reorganization Act . The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, also known as the Howard-Wheeler Act , was sometimes called the Indian New Deal and
3248-476: The United States Congress and administered by the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs , and not to the U.S. state government in which it is located. Some of the country's 574 federally recognized tribes govern more than one of the 326 Indian reservations in the United States , while some share reservations, and others have no reservation at all. Historical piecemeal land allocations under
3360-493: The United States Department of Defense ), to solve the land problem with 38 treaties with American Indian tribes. Indian Treaties, and Laws and Regulations Relating to Indian Affairs (1825) was a document signed by President Andrew Jackson in which he states that "we have placed the land reserves in a better state for the benefit of society" with approval of Indigenous reservations before 1850. The letter
3472-654: The "Plan for the Future Management of Indian Affairs". Although never adopted formally, the plan established the British government's expectation that land would only be bought by colonial governments, not individuals, and that land would only be purchased at public meetings. Additionally, this plan dictated that the Indians would be properly consulted when ascertaining and defining the boundaries of colonial settlement. The private contracts that once characterized
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3584-509: The $ 5,700 in these accounts." "Unlike most private trusts, the federal government bears the entire cost of administering the Indian trust. As a result, the usual incentives found in the commercial sector for reducing the number of small or inactive accounts do not apply to the Indian trust. Similarly, the United States has not adopted many of the tools that States and local government entities have for ensuring that unclaimed or abandoned property
3696-534: The 1887 land base. About 90,000 Native Americans were made landless. The Dawes Act compelled Native Americans to adopt European American culture by prohibiting Indigenous cultural practices and encouraging settler cultural practices and ideologies into Native American families and children. By transferring communally-owned Native land into private property, the Office of Indian Affairs (OIA) "hoped to transform Native Americans into yeoman farmers and farm wives through
3808-718: The Bureau (Office) of Indian Affairs. Under federal law, the government patented reservations to tribes, which became legal entities that at later times have operated in a corporate manner. Tribal tenure identifies jurisdiction over land-use planning and zoning, negotiating (with the close participation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs) leases for timber harvesting and mining. Tribes generally have authority over other forms of economic development such as ranching, agriculture, tourism, and casinos. Tribes hire both members, other Indians and non-Indians in varying capacities; they may run tribal stores, gas stations, and develop museums (e.g., there
3920-660: The Burke Act (also known as the Forced Patenting Act) amended the GAA to give the Secretary of the Interior the power to issue allottees a patent in fee simple to people classified "competent and capable". The criteria for this determination is unclear but it meant that allottees deemed "competent" by the Secretary of the Interior would have their land taken out of trust status, subject to taxation, and could be sold by
4032-472: The Dawes Act were: Every member of the bands or tribes receiving a land allotment is subject to laws of the state or territory in which they reside. Every Native American who receives a land allotment "and has adopted the habits of civilized life" (lived separate and apart from the tribe) is bestowed with United States citizenship "without in any manner impairing or otherwise affecting the right of any such Indian to tribal or other property". The Secretary of
4144-708: The Dawes Act. However, the vast fragmentation of reservations occurred from the enactment of this act up to 1934, when the Indian Reorganization Act was passed. However, Congress authorized some allotment programs in the ensuing years, such as on the Palm Springs/Agua Caliente Indian Reservation in California. Allotment set in motion a number of circumstances: The demographic factor, coupled with landownership data, led, for example, to litigation between
4256-569: The Dawes Act. The Dawes Commission was established in 1893 as a delegation to register members of tribes for allotment of lands. They came to define tribal belonging in terms of blood-quantum . However, because there was no method of determining precise bloodlines, commission members often assigned "full-blood status" to Native Americans who were perceived as "poorly-assimilated" or "legally incompetent", and "mixed-blood status" to Native Americans who "most resembled whites", regardless of how they identified culturally. The Curtis Act of 1898 extended
4368-577: The Dawes Allotment Act into law. Responsible for enacting the allotment of the tribal reservations into plots of land for individual households, the Dawes Act was intended by reformers to achieve six goals: The Act facilitated assimilation; they would become more "Americanized" as the government allotted the reservations and the Indians adapted to subsistence farming, the primary model at the time. Native Americans held specific ideologies pertaining to tribal land. Some natives began to adapt to
4480-588: The Dawes Commission to make determinations of members when registering tribal members. The Burke Act of 1906 amended the sections of the Dawes Act dealing with US Citizenship (Section 6) and the mechanism for issuing allotments. The Secretary of Interior could force the Native American Allottee to accept title for land. U.S. Citizenship was granted unconditionally upon receipt of land allotment (the individual did not need to move off
4592-561: The Department of the Interior attempted to replicate the audit methodology used by the GAO and to update the GAO report data to assess the continued growth of fractionation." It found that it increased by more than 40% between 1992 and 2002. "As an example of continuing fractionation, consider a real tract identified in 1987 in Hodel v. Irving , 481 U.S. 704 (1987): Tract 1305 is 40 acres (160,000 m ) and produces $ 1,080 in income annually. It
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4704-524: The Department of the Interior has managed over the last century. Interior is involved in "the management of 100,000 leases for individual [Native Americans] and tribes on trust land that encompasses approximately 56,000,000 acres (230,000 km ). Leasing, use permits, sale revenues, and interest of approximately $ 226 million per year are collected for approximately 230,000 individual Indian money [(IIM)] accounts, and about $ 530 million per year are collected for approximately 1,400 tribal accounts. In addition,
4816-684: The Devils Lake Sioux and the State of North Dakota, where non-Indians owned more acreage than tribal members even though more Native Americans resided on the reservation than non-Indians. The court decision turned, in part, on the perception of Indian character , contending that the tribe did not have jurisdiction over the alienated allotments. In a number of instances—e.g., the Yakama Indian Reservation—tribes have identified open and closed areas within reservations. One finds
4928-693: The Europeans encountered the New World, the American colonial government determined a precedent of establishing the land sovereignty of North America through treaties between countries. This precedent was upheld by the United States government. As a result, most Native American land was purchased by the United States government, a portion of which was designated to remain under Native sovereignty. The United States government and Native Peoples do not always agree on how land should be governed, which has resulted in
5040-407: The IRA. "The original versions of the IRA included two key titles; one dealing with probate and the other with land consolidation." Because of opposition to many of these provisions in Indian Country, often by the major European-American ranchers and industry who leased land and other private interests, most were removed while Congress was considering the bill. The final version of the IRA included only
5152-587: The Indian Country Law Enforcement Initiative which recognizes problems with law enforcement on Indian reservations and assigns top priority to solving existing problems. The Department of Justice recognizes the unique legal relationship that the United States has with federally recognized tribes. As one aspect of this relationship, in much of Indian Country, the Justice Department alone has the authority to seek
5264-515: The Indian agencies on reservations in order to teach Christianity to the Native American tribes. The Quakers were especially active in this policy on reservations. The policy was controversial from the start. Reservations were generally established by executive order . In many cases, white settlers objected to the size of land parcels, which were subsequently reduced. A report submitted to Congress in 1868 found widespread corruption among
5376-515: The Interior could issue rules to assure equal distribution of water for irrigation among the tribes, and provided that "no other appropriation or grant of water by any riparian proprietor shall be authorized or permitted to the damage of any other riparian proprietor." The Dawes Act did not apply to the territory of the: Provisions were later extended to the Wea , Peoria , Kaskaskia , Piankeshaw , and Western Miami tribes by act of 1889. Allotment of
5488-887: The Mexican-American War and protect American immigration traveling to Oregon and California." The Federal Government of America had their own needs and desires for Indigenous Land Reservations. He says, "the reconnaissance of explorers and other American officials understood that Indigenous Country possessed good land, bountiful game, and potential mineral resources." The American Government claimed Indigenous land for their own benefits with these creations of Indigenous Land Reservations . States such as Texas had their own policy when it came to Indian Reservations in America before 1850. Scholarly author George D. Harmon discusses Texas' own reservation system which "Prior to 1845, Texas had inaugurated and pursued her own Indian Policy of
5600-673: The U.S." Texas was one of the States before 1850 that chose to create their own reservation system as seen in Harmon's article, "The United States Indian Policy in Texas, 1845–1860." The State of "Texas had given only a few hundred acres of land in 1840, for the purpose of colonization". However, "In March 1847, … [a] special agent [was sent] to Texas to manage the Indian affairs in the State until Congress should take some definite and final action." The United States of America allowed its states to make up their own treaties such as this one in Texas for
5712-577: The United States defined the boundaries of Indian County." Also, "For Unrau, Indigenous Country is less on Indigenous homeland and more a place where the U.S. removed Indians from east of the Mississippi River and applied unique laws." The United States of America applied laws on Indigenous Reservations depending on where they were located like the Mississippi River . This act came too, because "the federal government began to compress Indigenous lands because it needed to send troops to Texas during
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#17327731527425824-560: The United States has a total 1.9 billion acres of land ) or about "two-thirds of the land base they held in 1887" as a result of the act. The loss of land ownership and the break-up of traditional leadership of tribes produced potentially negative cultural and social effects that have since prompted some scholars to consider the act as one of the most destructive U.S. policies for Native Americans in history. The " Five Civilized Tribes " ( Cherokee , Chickasaw , Choctaw , Muscogee , and Seminole ) in Indian Territory were initially exempt from
5936-485: The United States of America, resulting in the forceful removal of Indigenous peoples into specific land Reservations. Scholarly author James Oberly discusses "The Treaty of 1831 between the Menominee Nation and the United States" in his article, "Decision on Duck Creek: Two Green Bay Reservations and Their Boundaries, 1816–1996", showing yet another treaty regarding Indigenous Reservations before 1850. There
6048-809: The United States that the Indian territory would remain Indian land in perpetuity," completed the obliteration of tribal land titles in Indian Territory, and prepared for admission of the territory land to the Union as the state of Oklahoma . The Dawes Act was amended again in 1906 under the Burke Act . During the Great Depression , the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration passed the US Indian Reorganization Act (also known as
6160-453: The United States, designated parcels which the nations, as sovereigns, " reserved " to themselves, and those parcels came to be called "reservations". The term remained in use after the federal government began to forcibly relocate nations to parcels of land to which they often had no historical or cultural connection. Compared to other population centers in the U.S., reservations are disproportionately located on or near toxic sites hazardous to
6272-508: The United States. By 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes began phasing out the policy, and by 1882 all religious organizations had relinquished their authority to the federal Indian agency. In 1887, Congress undertook a significant change in reservation policy by the passage of the Dawes Act , or General Allotment (Severalty) Act. The act ended the general policy of granting land parcels to tribes as-a-whole by granting small parcels of land to individual tribe members. In some cases, for example,
6384-555: The Wheeler-Howard Law) on June 18, 1934. It prohibited any further land allotment and created a " New Deal " for Native Americans, which renewed their rights to reorganize and form self-governments in order to "rebuild an adequate land base." During the early 1800s, the United States federal government attempted to address what it referred to as the "Indian Problem." Numerous European immigrants were settling on
6496-715: The act was passed in 1887, the federal government implemented the Dawes Act on a tribe-by-tribe basis thereafter. For example, in 1895, Congress passed the Hunter Act , which administered the Dawes Act among the Southern Ute . The nominal purpose of the act was to protect the property of the natives as well as to compel " their absorption into the American mainstream ". Native peoples who were deemed to be mixed-blood were granted U.S. citizenship, while others were " detribalized ". Between 1887 and 1934, Native Americans ceded control of about 100 million acres of land (as of 2019
6608-713: The allotment process in Alaska , under the separate Alaska Native Allotment Act , continued until its revocation in 1971 by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act . Despite the termination of the allotment process in 1934, the effects of the General Allotment Act continue into the present. For example, one provision of the Act was the establishment of a trust fund, administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs , to collect and distribute revenues from oil, mineral, timber, and grazing leases on Native American lands. The BIA's alleged improper management of
6720-448: The allottee. The allotted lands of Native Americans determined to be incompetent by the Secretary of the Interior were automatically leased out by the federal government. The act reads: ... the Secretary of the Interior may, in his discretion, and he is hereby authorized, whenever he shall be satisfied that any Native American allottee is competent and capable of managing his or her affairs at any time to cause to be issued to such allottee
6832-530: The assignment of individual land holdings known as allotments." In an attempt to fulfill this objective, the Dawes Act "outlawed Native American culture and established a code of Indian offenses regulating individual behavior according to Euro-American norms of conduct." Any violations of this code were to be "tried in a Court of Indian Offenses on each reservation." Included with the Dawes Act were "funds to instruct Native Americans in Euro-American patterns of thought and behavior through Indian Service schools." With
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#17327731527426944-448: The assimilation process by forcing Native Americans to adopt individual households and strengthen the nuclear family and values of economic dependency strictly within this small household unit. The Dawes Act was thus implemented to destroy "native cultural patterns" by drawing "on theories, common to both ethnologists and material feminists, that saw environmental change as a way to effect social change." Although private property ownership
7056-464: The basis for hotel and conference facilities, to draw visitors and revenue to reservations. Successful gaming operations on some reservations have greatly increased the economic wealth of some tribes, enabling their investment to improve infrastructure, education, and health for their people. Serious crime on Indian reservations has historically been required (by the 1885 Major Crimes Act , 18 U.S.C. §§1153, 3242, and court decisions) to be investigated by
7168-446: The confederated tribes, as well as exhibits of contemporary Native American arts and traditional craftwork. 45°42′N 118°30′W / 45.7°N 118.5°W / 45.7; -118.5 Indian reservation An American Indian reservation is an area of land held and governed by a U.S. federal government-recognized Native American tribal nation , whose government is autonomous , subject to regulations passed by
7280-522: The culture. They adopted the values of the dominant society and saw land as real estate to be bought and developed; they learned how to use their land effectively to become prosperous farmers. As they were inducted as citizens of the country, they would shed those of their discourses and ideologies presumed to be uncivilized and exchange them for ones that allowed them to become industrious, self-supporting citizens, and finally rid themselves of their need for government supervision. The important provisions of
7392-409: The eastern border of the Indian territories (where most of the Native American tribes had been relocated). Conflicts between the groups increased as they competed for resources and operated according to different cultural systems. Searching for a quick solution to their problem, Commissioner of Indian Affairs William Medill proposed establishing "colonies" or "reservations" that would be exclusively for
7504-475: The federal Native American agencies and generally poor conditions among the relocated tribes. Many tribes ignored the relocation orders at first and were forced onto their limited land parcels. Enforcement of the policy required the United States Army to restrict the movements of various tribes. The pursuit of tribes in order to force them back onto reservations led to a number of wars with Native Americans which included some massacres. The most well-known conflict
7616-573: The federal government, usually the Federal Bureau of Investigation , and prosecuted by United States Attorneys of the United States federal judicial district in which the reservation lies. Tribal courts were limited to sentences of one year or less, until on July 29, 2010, the Tribal Law and Order Act was enacted which in some measure reforms the system permitting tribal courts to impose sentences of up to three years provided proceedings are recorded and additional rights are extended to defendants. The Justice Department on January 11, 2010, initiated
7728-652: The five-year allowance. Scholarly author Buck Woodard used executive papers from Governor William H. Cabell in his article, "Indian Land sales and allotment in Antebellum Virginia" to discuss Indigenous reservations in America before 1705, specifically in Virginia. He claims "the colonial government again recognized the Nottoway's land rights by treaty in 1713, at the conclusion of the Tuscaro War ." The indigenous peoples of America had land treaty agreements as early as 1713. The American Indigenous Reservation system started with "the Royal Proclamation of 1763 , where Great Britain set aside an enormous resource for Indians in
7840-411: The forms of government found outside the reservation. With the establishment of reservations, tribal territories diminished to a fraction of their original areas; customary Native American practices of land tenure were sustained only for a time, and not in every instance. Instead, the federal government established regulations that subordinated tribes to the authority, first, of the military, and then of
7952-546: The government retained complete control for a minimum of twenty-five years." Those who were labeled "mixed-blood" were "deeded larger and better tracts of land, with 'patents in fee simple' (complete control), but were also forced to accept U.S. citizenship and relinquish tribal status." Additionally, Native Americans who did not "meet the established criteria" as being either "full-blood" or "mixed-blood" were effectively "detribalized", being "deposed of their American Indian identity and displaced from their homelands, discarded into
8064-405: The health of those living or working in close proximity, including nuclear testing grounds and contaminated mines. The majority of American Indians and Alaska Natives live outside the reservations, mainly in the larger western cities such as Phoenix and Los Angeles . In 2012, there were more than 2.5 million Native Americans , with 1 million living on reservations. From the beginning of
8176-494: The idea before it was fully implemented, five tribes were terminated—the Coushatta , Ute , Paiute , Menominee and Klamath —and 114 groups in California lost their federal recognition as tribes. Many individuals were also relocated to cities, but one-third returned to their tribal reservations in the decades that followed. Federally recognized Native American tribes possess limited tribal sovereignty and are able to exercise
8288-562: The lack of data on crime rates and law enforcement response. As of 2012, a high incidence of rape continued to impact Native American women. A survey of death certificates over a four-year period showed that deaths among Indians due to alcohol are about four times as common as in the general U.S. population and are often due to traffic collisions and liver disease with homicide , suicide , and falls also contributing. Deaths due to alcohol among American Indians are more common in men and among Northern Plains Indians. Alaska Natives showed
8400-538: The land, once allotted to appointed natives, was declared surplus and sold to non-native settlers as well as railroad and other large corporations; other sections were converted into federal parks and military compounds. Most allottees given land on the Great Plains were not successful at achieving economic viability via farming. Division of land among heirs upon the allottees' deaths quickly led to land fractionalization. Most allotment land, which could be sold after
8512-483: The lands of these tribes was mandated by the Act of 1891, which amplified the provisions of the Dawes Act. In 1891 the Dawes Act was amended: The Curtis Act of 1898 extended the provisions of the Dawes Act to the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory. It did away with their self-government, including tribal courts. In addition to providing for allotment of lands to tribal members, it authorized
8624-710: The least incidence of death. Under federal law, alcohol sales are prohibited on Indian reservations unless the tribal councils allow it. Gang violence has become a major social problem. A December 13, 2009, article in The New York Times about growing gang violence on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation estimated that there were 39 gangs with 5,000 members on that reservation alone. As opposed to traditional "Most Wanted" lists, Native Americans are often placed on regional Crime Stoppers lists offering rewards for their whereabouts. When
8736-487: The majority of non-Indian landownership and residence in the open areas and, contrariwise, closed areas represent exclusive tribal residence and related conditions. Indian country today consists of tripartite government—i. e., federal, state and/or local, and tribal. Where state and local governments may exert some, but limited, law-and-order authority, tribal sovereignty is diminished. This situation prevails in connection with Indian gaming, because federal legislation makes
8848-480: The name of greed, it would be bad enough; but to do it in the name of humanity ... is infinitely worse. In 1890, Dawes himself remarked about the incidence of Native Americans losing their land allotments to settlers: "I never knew a White man to get his foot on an Indian's land who ever took it off." The amount of land in native hands rapidly depleted from some 150 million acres (610,000 km ) to 78 million acres (320,000 km ) by 1900. The remainder of
8960-575: The natives, similar to those which some native tribes had created for themselves in the east. It was a form of relocation whereby the US government would offer a transfer of the natives from current locations to areas in the region beyond the Mississippi River . This would enable settlement by European Americans in the Southeast, where there was a growing demand for access to new lands. The new policy intended to concentrate Native Americans in areas away from
9072-422: The nebula of American otherness." While the Dawes Act is "typically recognized" as the "primary instigation of divisions between tribal and detribalized Indians," the history of detribalization in the United States "actually precedes Dawes." The Dawes Act ended Native American communal holding of property (with cropland often being privately owned by families or clans ), by which they had ensured that everyone had
9184-589: The new settlers. During the later nineteenth century, Native American tribes resisted the imposition of the reservation system and engaged with the United States Army (in what were called the Indian Wars in the West) for decades. Finally defeated by the U.S. military force and continuing waves of new settlers, the tribes negotiated agreements to resettle on reservations. Native Americans ended up with
9296-399: The next generation. Fractionated interests in individual Native American allotted land continue to expand exponentially with each new generation. In 2004, Ross Swimmer , Special Trustee for American Indians at the U.S. Department of the Interior , stated that there were "approximately four million owner interests in the 10,000,000 acres (40,000 km ) of individually owned trust lands,
9408-643: The number of owners of a tract of land reaches between ten and twenty, the value of that tract drops to zero. In addition, the fractionation of land and the resultant ballooning number of trust accounts quickly produced an administrative nightmare. Over the past 40 years, the area of trust land has grown by approximately 80,000 acres (320 km ) per year. Approximately 357 million dollars is collected annually from all sources of trust asset management, including coal sales, timber harvesting, oil and gas leases and other rights-of-way and lease activity. No single fiduciary institution has ever managed as many trust accounts as
9520-403: The provisions of the Dawes Act to the "Five Civilized Tribes", required the abolition of their governments and dissolution of tribal courts, allotment of communal lands to individuals registered as tribal members, and sale of lands declared surplus. This law was "an outgrowth of the land rush of 1889 , and completed the extinction of Indian land claims in the territory. This violated the promise of
9632-625: The purpose of colonization. The passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 marked the systematization of a U.S. federal government policy of moving Native populations away from European-populated areas, whether forcibly or voluntarily. One example was the Five Civilized Tribes , who were removed from their historical homelands in the Southeastern United States and moved to Indian Territory , in
9744-601: The reservation (e.g., Enabling Act of 1910 at Section 20 ). As a general practice, such land may sit idle or be used for cattle grazing by tribal ranchers. In 1979, the Seminole tribe in Florida opened a high-stakes bingo operation on its reservation in Florida. The state attempted to close the operation down but was stopped in the courts. In the 1980s, the case of California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians established
9856-472: The reservation to receive citizenship). Land allotted to Native Americans was taken out of Trust and subject to taxation. The Burke Act did not apply to any Native Americans in Indian Territory . The effects of the Dawes Act were destructive on Native American sovereignty, culture, and identity since it empowered the U.S. government to: The federal government initially viewed the Dawes Act as such
9968-406: The reservation, not the U.S. state it is located in, but is subject to federal law. Court jurisdiction in Indian country is shared between tribes and the federal government, depending on the tribal affiliation of the parties involved and the specific crime or civil matter. Different reservations have different systems of government, which may or may not replicate the forms of government found outside
10080-567: The reservation. Most Native American reservations were established by the federal government but a small number, mainly in the East, owe their origin to state recognition . The term "reservation" is a legal designation. It comes from the conception of the Native American nations as independent sovereigns at the time the U.S. Constitution was ratified. Thus, early peace treaties (often signed under conditions of duress or fraud), in which Native American nations surrendered large portions of their land to
10192-586: The reservations. Likewise, over two million acres (8,000 km ) of land were returned to various tribes. Within a decade of Collier's retirement the government's position began to swing in the opposite direction. The new Indian Commissioners Myers and Emmons introduced the idea of the "withdrawal program" or " termination ", which sought to end the government's responsibility and involvement with Indians and to force their assimilation. The Indians would lose their lands but were to be compensated, although many were not. Even though discontent and social rejection killed
10304-506: The right of reservations to operate other forms of gambling operations. In 1988, Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act , which recognized the right of Native American tribes to establish gambling and gaming facilities on their reservations as long as the states in which they are located have some form of legalized gambling. Today, many Native American casinos are used as tourist attractions, including as
10416-524: The right of self-governance, including but not limited to the ability to pass laws, regulate power and energy, create treaties, and hold tribal court hearings. Laws on tribal lands may vary from those of the surrounding area. The laws passed can, for example, permit legal casinos on reservations. The tribal council, not the local government or the United States federal government , often has jurisdiction over reservations. Different reservations have different systems of government, which may or may not replicate
10528-559: The sale of Indian land to various individuals and groups—from farmers to towns—were replaced by treaties between sovereigns. This protocol was adopted by the United States Government after the American Revolution. On March 11, 1824, U.S. Vice President John C. Calhoun founded the Office of Indian Affairs (now the Bureau of Indian Affairs) as a division of the United States Department of War (now
10640-535: The seizure of many Native American land holdings, indigenous structures of domestic life, gender roles, and tribal identity were critically altered in order to meld with society. For instance, "an important objective of the Dawes Act was to restructure Native American gender roles." White settlers who encountered Native American societies in the latter half of the nineteenth century "judged women's work [in Native societies] as lower in status than that of men" and assumed it
10752-599: The settlers encroached on territory and natural resources in the West. In 1868, President Ulysses S. Grant pursued a "Peace Policy" as an attempt to avoid violence. The policy included a reorganization of the Indian Service, with the goal of relocating various tribes from their ancestral homes to parcels of lands established specifically for their inhabitation. The policy called for the replacement of government officials by religious men, nominated by churches, to oversee
10864-456: The severity of fractionation on those reservations. The GAO found that on the 12 reservations for which it compiled data, there were approximately 80,000 discrete owners but, because of fractionation, there were over a million ownership records associated with those owners. The GAO also found that if the land were physically divided by the fractional interests, many of these interests would represent less than one square foot of ground. In early 2002,
10976-548: The state a party to any contractual or statutory agreement. Finally, occupancy on reservations can be by virtue of tribal or individual tenure. There are many churches on reservations; most would occupy tribal land by consent of the federal government or the tribe. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) agency offices, hospitals, schools, and other facilities usually occupy residual federal parcels within reservations. Many reservations include one or more sections (about 640 acres) of land for schools, but such land typically remains part of
11088-432: The state of Michigan, on the principle of said reserves being sold at the public land offices for their benefit and the actual proceeds being paid to them." The agreement dictated that the indigenous tribe sell their land to build a lighthouse. A treaty signed by John Forsyth, the Secretary of State on behalf of Van Buren, also dictates where indigenous peoples must live in terms of the reservation system in America between
11200-544: The territory of the present United States." The United States put forward another act when "Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830". A third act pushed through was "the federal government relocated "portions of [the] 'Five Civilized Tribes' from the southeastern states in the Non-Intercourse Act of 1834 ." All three of these laws set into motion the Indigenous Reservation system in
11312-551: The time, and lack of access to credit and markets, liquidation of Indian lands was almost inevitable. It was known by the Department of Interior that virtually 95% of fee-patented land would eventually be sold to whites. In 1926, Secretary of the Interior Hubert Work commissioned a study of the federal administration of Indian policy and the condition of Native American people. Completed in 1928, The Problem of Indian Administration – commonly known as
11424-509: The total area of the United States and about the size of the state of Idaho . While most reservations are small compared to the average U.S. state, twelve Indian reservations are larger than the state of Rhode Island . The largest reservation, the Navajo Nation Reservation , is similar in size to the state of West Virginia . Reservations are unevenly distributed throughout the country, the majority being situated west of
11536-411: The tribe has the authority to modify tenant-in-common practices. With the General Allotment Act (Dawes) , 1887, the government sought to individualize tribal lands by authorizing allotments held in individual tenure. Generally, the allocation process led to grouping family holdings and, in some cases, this sustained pre-reservation clan or other patterns. There had been a few allotment programs ahead of
11648-452: The trust currently manages approximately $ 2.8 billion in tribal funds and $ 400 million in individual Native American funds." "Under current regulations, probates need to be conducted for every account with trust assets, even those with balances between one cent and one dollar. While the average cost for a probate process exceeds $ 3,000, even a streamlined, expedited process...costing as little as $ 500 would require almost $ 10,000,000 to probate
11760-465: The trust fund resulted in litigation, in particular the case Cobell v. Kempthorne (settled in 2009 for $ 3.4 billion), to force a proper accounting of revenues. For over one hundred thirty years, the consequences of federal Indian allotments have developed into the problem of fractionation . As original allottees die, their heirs receive equal, undivided interests in the allottees' lands. In successive generations, smaller undivided interests descend to
11872-500: Was a sign of indigenous women's "disempowerment and drudgery". As a result, "in evolutionary terms, Whites saw women's performance of what seemed to be male tasks – farming, home building, and supply gathering – as a corruption of gender roles and an impediment to progress." In theory, the gendered tasks "accorded many indigenous women esteem and even rewards and status within their tribes." By dividing reservation lands into privately owned parcels, legislators hoped to complete
11984-496: Was a top priority and was needed for the peoples' very survival. This was the belief among people who "admired" them, as well as people who thought they needed to leave behind their tribal landholding, reservations, traditions, and, ultimately, their Indian identities. Senator Henry Dawes launched a campaign to "rid the nation of tribalism through the virtues of private property, allotting land parcels to Indian heads of family." On February 8, 1887, President Grover Cleveland signed
12096-470: Was established by Easton Treaty with the colonial governments of New Jersey and Pennsylvania on August 29, 1758. Located in southern New Jersey , it was called Brotherton Indian Reservation and also Edgepillock or Edgepelick . The area was 3,284 acres (13.29 km ). Today it is called Indian Mills in Shamong Township . In 1764 the British government's Board of Trade proposed
12208-451: Was initiated by John Collier . It laid out new rights for Native Americans, reversed some of the earlier privatization of their common holdings, and encouraged tribal sovereignty and land management by tribes. The act slowed the assignment of tribal lands to individual members and reduced the assignment of "extra" holdings to nonmembers. For the following 20 years, the U.S. government invested in infrastructure, health care, and education on
12320-439: Was one of the most outspoken opponents of allotment. In 1881, he said that allotment was a policy "to despoil the Indians of their lands and to make them vagabonds on the face of the earth." Teller also said, the real aim [of allotment] was to get at the Indian lands and open them up to settlement. The provisions for the apparent benefit of the Indians are but the pretext to get at his lands and occupy them. ... If this were done in
12432-671: Was the Sioux War on the northern Great Plains , between 1876 and 1881, which included the Battle of Little Bighorn . Other famous wars in this regard included the Nez Perce War and the Modoc War , which marked the last conflict officially declared a war. By the late 1870s, the policy established by President Grant was regarded as a failure, primarily because it had resulted in some of the bloodiest wars between Native Americans and
12544-448: Was the cornerstone of the act, reformers "believed that civilization could only be effected by concomitant changes to social life" in indigenous communities. As a result, "they promoted Christian marriages among indigenous people, forced families to regroup under male heads (a tactic often enforced by renaming), and trained men in wage-earning occupations while encouraging women to support them at home through domestic activities." In 1906,
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